Southwestern Railroad Company

The Southwestern Railroad Company was a railroad enterprise established in Texas in the late 19th century, running through the border of Texas’ New Austin County and Mexico’s northern province of Nuevo Paraiso. The railroad lines accommodated the town of Hennigan’s Stead and ran over the Butter Bridge and into Mexico, touching the stations at Casa Madrugada, Las Hermanas, and Chuparosa before re-crossing the Rio Bravo at the Frontera Bridge and going to Benedict Point and Armadillo in Texas. The track ran from Armadillo back to Hennigan’s Stead.

History
The Southwestern Railroad Company was one of many locomotive industries opened during the 1800s in order to facilitate travel through New Austin County in southern Texas, but it later branched off into the Mexican province of Nuevo Paraiso. They ran two tracks in the county, both of which would go to Mexico, but one of which would extend to Blackwater via Mason’s Bridge. In the early 1900s, people criticized the company for being a front for Jews to open up a new business. However, its trains were busy and dropped people off at locations free of charge. During the Mexican Revolution, one of the trains was ambushed and broken apart by rebels during a night raid on the train as it passed through Chuparosa’s stop in “The Great Mexican Train Robbery”. Bridges were sabotaged, and early in 1911 the Frontera Bridge, Ramita de la Baya Bridge, and Butter Bridge were destroyed and the borders closed by President Ignacio Sanchez in order to brutally crush the uprising. The borders later opened, and American volunteers used the railroads to head to Mexico to join Abraham Reyes’ Rebeldes. The railroad company was eventually closed due to illegal immigration problems that took place on the Mexican border, as many Mexicans emigrated from their country in search for a better place to live and for money and employment.